Tauranga Shore Excursion: Te Puia Maori Cultural Centre and Rotorua City Sightseeing

TOUR OPERATOR COMMENT Thank you for your feedback of your experience. I take all feedback seriously - good and bad. I am really disappointed that you did not feel you had the value of your days touring. Our tour is advertised as a 7-7.5 hour tour which departs from the port at 9 am and ends between 4 and 4:30 pm. Clients have normally had enough by this length of time and want to be back on board their ship well prior to sailing. For those cruisers who want to do and see more, they generally book a private tour option where they can choose where they visit and how long to spend in any one place. In regard to the Okere falls and rapids which Nick drove right on past en route to Rotorua, these have suffered a massive landslide of late and the viewing platform is unsafe, but I appreciate you having been there previously, as it was somewhere you would like to showcase to your sister; we are rather upset of this current situation. If you made it to Comvita (honey place) in the afternoon, you were most fortunate to find them open as they have reduced their opening hours which restricts our visits on the return to the ship. A lot of these issues are outside of our controls as a tour company and I assure you I have spoken with Dept. of Conservation and asked when they will be clearing the slip/landslide away. I have spoken with Comvita on several occasions about opening later on cruise ship days - but to no avail. The redwood forest is somewhere we visit if time permits. The highlight of the tour taken is Te Puia - Rotorua's Premier attraction with its Maori culture, history, song, dance, arts & crafts, along with getting up close to geothermal activities and ability to visit the nocturnal Kiwi bird house. This attraction takes the majority of the day and all the other points of interests are as time allows. In regard to the driver speeding, this in incorrect as all our vehicles are fitted with a tracking system called and I-bright and an alarm goes off if the driver, speeds, corners too severely or hits a speed hump in the road too fast, and we have checked the computer log for all of these issues. In regard to concert times at Te Puia, these are run at 10.15am, 12.15pm and 3.15pm and occasionally they will add an additional concert time on a very busy day - certainly not every hour on the hour. However, the guided tours run on the hour. I have passed on your comments to Nick - your tour guide. I am sure Nick managed to share his knowledge and humor with you all throughout the day, and as his employer, I again apologize for your disappointment of your tour.